Baptist chapels

Rye Lane Baptist Chapel

59a Rye Lane SE15 5EX
Website: www.ryelane.org

• Built: 1819      Architect: Bland      Cost: £1,400
• Opened: 1 September 1819
• Rebuilt: 1863        Cost: £1,734
• Opened: 18 November 1863
• No. of seats: 900 (1894); congregation 1,705 (1902/3)
• Still in use

In about 1817, a Mr Spencer, one of the deacons of the Baptist church in Blackfriars, moved to Peckham. He started to hold services in his own home in Hill Street (now known as Peckham Hill Street) as there was no local church. As the number of worshippers grew, they needed larger premises and so moved to a barn in Hill Street which had fitted out as a chapel. Further increase in the congregation prompted the purchase of land at the junction of Blenheim Grove and Rye Lane, and a chapel was built in Rye lane in 1819.
However, the railway was arriving and Parliament passed a Bill permitting construction of a station at Peckham on the site of the chapel. Building commence in May 1863, and the current chapel was opened in November the same year. The imposing front has a projecting central pediment and Tuscan columns.

Peckham Park Road Baptist Church

121 Peckham Park Road  SE15 6SX
Website: http://pprbc.co.uk/

• Built: 1861-2
• No. of seats: 800 (1894); congregation 712 (1902/3)
• Still in use

The church was started by a small group who held services in their own homes. By June 1853 they were renting a large room at 15 Hill Street, and then converted a workshop in the same road. The new church was begun in 1861, and opened the following year. The plinth and foundation stone were originally part of Old Westminster Bridge, and can still be seen although the chapel was partly rebuilt in 1951 after war damage.

Mission church

Peckham Park

• Congregation 83 (1902/3)

North Peckham Baptist Church

(Formerly known as James Grove Baptist Chapel)
East Surrey Grove, North Peckham  SE15 6DR

• Built: 1860      Cost: £1860
• No. of seats: 350 (1894); congregation 349 (1902/3)
• Still in use

It is a mystery how this chapel managed to survive as the only old building isolated in the sea of 1960s redevelopment which swept the houses of its original worshippers away. The first congregation used to meet together in a small room in South Street (now Hanover Park). This was the third outpost (mission) of Rye Lane Chapel.

Commenced in a small room in South Street ; it was then removed to the Rosemary Branch in 1869 ; the memorial-stone of the present building was laid by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, on July 19, 1870. The first and present minister is the Rev. B. Field. It is capable of seating 335 persons, and cost £1860.

Ye Parish of Camerwell W.H. Blanch (1875)

It was taken over by Rye Lane Church in 1900 and was known as James Grove Mission, then later as North Peckham Mission. On 5th October 1986 it became a church in its own right – North Peckham Baptist Church.

Peckham Rye Tabernacle Baptist Church

55a Nigel Road, Peckham  SE15 4NP
Website: www.peckhamryebaptist.org.uk

• Built:  1891
• Opened: Good Friday 1891
• No. of seats: 1200 (1894); congregation 1095 (1902/3)
• Still in use

The original church which opened in 1891 and faced onto Rye Lane South Triangle was reminiscent in appearance to St Basil’s Cathedral. It has since been replaced by a more modern and functional single-storey building.

Amott Road Baptist Church

(formerly East Dulwich Baptist Church)
Amott Road, Peckham SE15 4HU
Website: https://www.amottroadbaptistchurch.org/
Church history: Amott Road Baptist Church

• Built:  1958
• Consecrated: 18 October 1896; 9 August 1958
• No. of seats: x (1894); congregation 198 (1902/3)
• Still in use

A small group of people held a series of open-air services in 1873. They then moved to meet in a series of houses, Goldsmith Road Mission Hall (had 120 seats) from 1876, and then Norfolk Street Baptist Church (now Christ Church McDermott Road). In 1895 they moved to Constitutional Hall in East Dulwich Grove, and finally purchased land to construct a small corrugated iron chapel and hall in Amott Road in 1896. The church was rebuilt in 1958 and new halls ten years later.

Nunhead Baptist Church

36-38 Gautrey Road, SE15 2JQ  (formerly Edith Road)

• Built: 1888
• Consecrated:
• No. of seats: 500 (1894); congregation 600 (1902/3)
• Building sold to another Christian denomination.

It began in Lausanne Road. The foundation stones of the new chapel were laid in 1888. The church closed at the end of the twentieth century, and in 1991 the building was bought by  Emmanuel Miracle Temple Bethany Fellowship Of Great Britain since 1991.

Other Baptist chapels

Arthur Street (1871-73)
Culmore Road (1879 ??)
Peckham Tabernacle, 43 High Street   Congregation 262 (1902/3). Originally known as Central Hall.
Nunhead Green (1878-19??)  No. of seats: 200 (1894); congregation 216 (1902/3)
Sylvan Grove (1867-73)
Zion Baptist chapel Heaton Road (1873)   No. of seats: 350 (1894). See Independent and other churches

Baptist Missions

Gordon Road (1880) (junction with Crewys Road)  Congregation 100 (1902/3)
Haymerle Road   Congregation 376 (1902/3)
Chapel House, Nigel Road   Congregation 46 (1902/3)
66 Peckham Park Road   Congregation 100 (1902/3)
Relf Road   No. of seats: 150 (1894); congregation 54 (1902/3)
Grove Mission, Adelaide Place off Sumner Road (18??-1936)   No. of seats: 300 (1894). Closed 1936.

 

[Text moved from: http://www.peckhamhistory.org.uk/churchesBap.htm]